Tired of running from one police station to the other for bandobast during anti-encroachment drives, the civic committee will now have one station in its head office to solve such issues, provide manpower during drives
The tug-of-war between the civic body and police overu00a0bandobast during anti-encroachment drives seems to be reaching a solution. To create an independent system for drives, security and handling the crime cases related to PMC, a police station and four chowkies would be established for the Pune Municipal Corporation. The state government has also given a green signal to recruit 158 personnel for this purpose.
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One-Stop shop: The state government has also given a green signal to recruit 158 personnelu00a0for the police station and 4 chowkies exclusively for PMC-related issues. File Pic
Reason behind move
Many times, PMC officials and ward offices have faced reluctance from the police for executive bandobast duties during anti-encroachment drives. MiD DAY had highlighted this issue in the April 11 edition when police refused to provide bandobast for non-payment of previous amount.
According to notification of the state government, the police should provide protection to civic functionaries at the ward office level. That time, the PMC officials had warned to seal police stations for non-payment of property tax. To avoid such conflicts, state government informed all municipal corporations of the state to prepare a proposal for an independent police station.
The final proposal was prepared and approved in the General Body meeting last year and was submitted to the state government. “According to that proposal, a main police station in the PMC premises and four chowkies at different parts of the city will be established. The police station will deal with all matters — economic and other offences — related to the civic body. Currently, we have to approach the nearest police station for such matters. The police station will facilitate the system of civic body,” said D R Langhe, chief encroachment inspector.
“The ward offices will take bandobast from these chowkies during anti-encroachment drives and we will not have to rely on police.”u00a0In total, 158 posts have been proposed and approved by the state. The recruitment procedure will also be conducted by the state. “Our responsibility is to make infrastructure ready for police station and chowkies. A budgetary provision of around Rs 5 crore has been made for that. The salaries of these 158 staff will be given by PMC,” said Langhe.u00a0
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